Residential Segregation and the Electoral Participation of Immigrants in Australia

Antoine Bilodeau

Problem: Research on immigrants' participation has made tremendous progress in assessing the role
of individual and institutional factors on immigrants' political participation, but to this point little
attention has been devoted to understanding the role of geographical factors such as the
concentration of immigrants in certain areas.

Goal of the article: This paper investigates whether immigrants in Australia residing in situations of
residential segregation participate more in electoral politics than other immigrants.

Conclusion: The results indicate that immigrants participate more when living in federal
constituencies with high concentrations of immigrants and also exhibit greater homogeneity in their
partisan preferences. The analysis also indicates that the impact of residential segregation is
primarily observed among immigrants from non-English-speaking countries. Immigrants from visible
minority background, such as those from South East Asia as well as those from Southern and South
Eastern Europe, tend to be more strongly affected by the ethnic composition of their constituencies
than other immigrants such as those from the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Segregation leading to less participation with the host state or more capabilities to adapt to host
state within own communities.

How segregation could lead to more participation: Mobilization on a social level, mobilization by
political parties and external efficacy. These are not supported.

Residential segregation can help create a space through which immigrants learn to become active
citizens. Residential segregation, instead of marginalizing immigrants into their own ethnic
communities, would favour participation in political activities that help bridge and integrate
immigrants into the broader host political system.

This paper also demonstrates that not all groups of immigrants benefit from living within their ethnic
communities and that the dynamics of residential segregation affect primarily immigrants from
visible minority backgrounds, such as those from South East Asia and Southern and South Eastern
Europe. Immigrants from British origin did not exhibit a stronger propensity to participate when
living with large numbers of their community.

The role of group identity and consciousness might provide the explanation to account for group
differences.

Another explanation to account for the stronger impact of residential segregation among particular
communities could relate to the ethnicity of local candidates running in these constituencies.